General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsREMEMBER, the House Dems can not pass laws on their own. The R-Senate and Trump must approve.
I see many posts here about "The House Dems must now do..." or "The first law the House Dems need to pass is..."
Don't forget, the House can't pass diddly shit without the ok of the R-Senate and Trump.
What they CAN do is put forward legislation that is VERY popular, push it like hell in front of the public, and try to pressure the other side
to pass it and put them on the record being for or against it. For example, the first order of business is going to be a bill to strengthen the protections for pre-existing conditions. I anticipate they will push it LOUDLY and put the R's on the CLEAR record. Yes or No. That is what they are going to do. The same with jobs, tax fairness, climate change, campaign reform, education, and infrastructure.
They will TRY to pass things, but they can't without the other chamber and Trump being onboard. (Incarceration reform and infrastructure may be a possibility, and comprehensive immigration reform.)
On oversight of Trump, they can do a lot independently.
They can also block bad bills put out by Trump and the Senate R's.
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)And the House can rewrite spending rules as well as control how or why when it comes to Purse String items.
LBM20
(1,580 posts)Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)will be one of the major Decision Makers when it comes to who,what and where that money flows too.
DinahMoeHum
(21,737 posts)n/t
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)make Mitch McConnell's as well as Donnie the Prince of Stupid,lives a living hell.
Fullduplexxx
(7,818 posts)Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)for the Rethugs and especially slimy Mitch. He does not have a Budget and December 7 is closing in on him. And no one trusts him anymore so all bets are off and next year and the Money Purse Strings will see lots of begging from the Mitch Crowd.
Lets not forget what is happening with all the Budget Deficits that are piling up by the minute. We have not seen the real blow up yet. When every working family has to scrape up hundreds or every a couple thousand to pay their Income Taxes by April,guess what,something is going to his the fan in a smelly way.
Stories are popping about the mega shake up on K Street,changes are afoot in the lobbing world.
Demsrule86
(68,352 posts)legislation are going to be disappointed...I hope for miserable grid-lock that keep SS, Medicare and Medicaid and the ACA safe..am hopeful for the ACA in terms of tweaks to reduce premiums and maybe drop the lawsuit since the GOP got hammered on it but nothing else.
SaschaHM
(2,897 posts)Everything that they're going to put up and vote on is and frankly should be the Democratic equivalent to the House's ACA repeal during the Obama presidency . Campaign promises without technical details.
No real reason to get into the nitty, gritty of who's taxes has to go up, who loses what benefit if there is no real chance of it becoming law. That would just be handing the House and potentially the WH in 2020 to the Republicans.
Learn from the 2016 House's mistake. Don't pass legislation that's toxic for your members if it has no chance of passing.
They should definitely use their budgetary leverage to try and accomplish things though.
LBM20
(1,580 posts)shanny
(6,709 posts)Increasing taxes on the rich and actually cutting them for everyone else? Passing real fixes to gerrymandering and voting rights? Passing a real, workable single-payer plan? Passing a living wage bill? Fixing SS forever by eliminating the cap, applying FICA to ALL income, and raising benefits while they're at it? Making college free for all who qualify at state schools? Passing sensible gun control laws? Passing a Green New Deal (more and more understand that it is needed; couple it with infrastructure/jobs program)
Y'know, passing things that the majority of Americans WANT, and then daring the pukes to vote against and/or veto them? Giving OUR base, and independents, something to vote for?
That would be terrible.
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)I think Adam Schiff will be able to bring into the public many of the egregious acts long locked in the corral, by the Republicans. It's going to need to be a PUBLIC relations information push...the truth. The only thing, IMO, that will every be truly effective is when the Republican/public gets what has been going on, is sufficiently upset, and take it out on their Republican Congressperson.
Also a shout-out to Nancy Pelosi as half of a dynamic duo to know how to get around a lot of the resistance.
(Brings to mind the viral clip of the man who stood up at a town hall and emotionally railed about his wife with cancer in remission and them gutting the Prior Conditions exception ...and that R lost his seat.) My sense is that happened in many homes...just not on TV.
It won't be right away, but the depth of the illegal acts will ultimately begin to disgust a part of their own constituency. The Tea Party Base will remain, of course. When that is perceived...and they keep a firm grip on this knowledge...you can bet that those Republican representatives will begin to take notice. It's called re-election.
LBM20
(1,580 posts)bread and butter issues, as Pelosi has clearly said. THAT is how we keep the majority.
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)a reality...particularly with bread and butter issues. And how will the public know...especially the non-politically engaged public? We need to win over/keep many of those voters to hold the House and retake the Senate.
Too often Democrats are hesitant to take to battle...and try to be bipartisan and not offend anyone. This doesn't make the headlines. I'm not saying we should adopt their slash and burn tactics...which work very well, unfortunately. But I think we are going to have to up our game as the Republican backlash surely begins. They have pretty much already said, via their leadership, that they will wield their Senate weapons as needed.
CousinIT
(9,151 posts)being passed. Dangerous ones that build fucking walls and gut social security to pay for that and billionaire tax cuts.
AND I expect them to make all of Mueller's findings public AND get Tump and Whitacker's tax returns released to the public as well as investigating the 2 solid years of other unethical and criminal activity that has gone on in that fucking administration with utter impunity under an impotent GOP-dominated congress which completely abdicated its oversight duties.
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)Blue_true
(31,261 posts)The Dem House can block corrosive changes to Medicare and Medicaid and other programs that help people. In terms of Mueller, the Dems best tactic is to make sure the truth gets out to the public, that alone should sink Trump and republicans. On issues like climate change, the Dems can now insure that science once again informs policy, the Dems can launch real studies of the impact of climate change, studies led by real scientists.
ananda
(28,783 posts)nt
lunatica
(53,410 posts)Last edited Sun Nov 18, 2018, 07:05 PM - Edit history (1)
stop backing Trumpism wholeheartedly. Many of them have been uncomfortable backing Trump without question. Some might want to work with Democrats. Especially in light of the blue wave.
lame54
(35,139 posts)They are willing to work hard for progress but republicans are standing in the way
Show us where the real gridlock lies
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)And can be accomplished with any good leader imho. I think what youve missed is most important though. Likely in the next 6 months, the Mueller report will be released. At that point we will need people to persuade and influence the masses that trump truly committed crimes. That will be infinitely more difficult when youve got a universally known punching bag for the right who they automatically by rote dont trust. All trump will have to do is utter her name, and it will be discounted. This has nothing to do with reverence, admiration, and respect for her service. Has everything to do with started from below zero. No wonder trump rooting for her.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)That is done by committee heads, Schiff, Waters and others.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)Blue_true
(31,261 posts)The right hate her because she just absolutely humiliated the last two republican speakers, letting them twist in the wind, then stepping forward to save their asses, for a price.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)a women, as wrong as that is. She is the lightning rod we dont need right now. Has nothing to do with how much I respect her...everything to do with trump. Not gonna argue this anymore, No biggie we just disagree,
VOX
(22,976 posts)I know, Pelosi is a shopworn target for the right, but theres some satisfaction in that they will have to deal with someone theyve vilified for years. As noted above, shes tough, and can absorb the blows that are certainly coming. Again. And again.
Not sure that a new speaker would fare any better. Not when dealing with the right-wing arsenal of Fox, Sinclair, hate radio, and the Dotards tweets, all of which fling fresh red meat in tonnage figures at any liberal du jour.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)Not below zero
pnwmom
(108,925 posts)And she won't be the only Democrat with a voice after the Mueller report comes out.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)Leader...but when they dont know them. Coming months critical. Trump will make it all about her. Much harder if person relatively unknown.
pnwmom
(108,925 posts)And in the face of the coming Mueller report, no Democratic Speaker will get one either.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)And see. Hope you are all right.
wasupaloopa
(4,516 posts)please and make a deal.
keithbvadu2
(36,369 posts)What they CAN do is compromise rather than acquiesce.
Compromise - bad word when in the total minority.
Compromise - good word when you share power.
roamer65
(36,739 posts)I voted for them to do just that. Stop Repuke garbage bills dead.
GulfCoast66
(11,949 posts)The firewall; prevents anymore bad bills. We are lucky the tax bill is all they got through for the last 2 years.
The platform; pass bill after bill the American People agree with only to watch the die in the Senate. Nothing crazy like unfounded Medicare for all, but an expanded ACA. DACA. Climate Change legislation. Etc.
That and getting up trumps ass with our regulatory and investigation powers will set us up for 2020.
kurtcagle
(1,601 posts)I spent much of the afternoon talking with a Trumpian acquaintance. Generally good guy, conservative, but has definitely drunk the koolaid. He brought up a comment that Pelosi made in a speech when the ACA was first passed that on a very limited reading would seem to say that she was telling the House they couldn't see the bill before it was voted on. As it turned out, once the broader context was shown, she said no such thing, but even before she's taken office, they are already throwing everything they possibly can to paint her as a villain. Of course, right after her was Maxine Waters, who is of course not only an outspoken black woman, but she's a "socialist", just like the Chinese in Tienanmen Square.
By the way, from the perspective of the right, the FBI and CIA are now corrupt, and captured by the Democrats, Russia is our ally, China is the enemy, the EU are a bunch of socialist states that are just as bad as China was (you hear surprisingly little about the USSR from that side) and the 2008 recession wasn't the fault of Bush or a lack of regulations, but the fact that AIG was the real reason everything fell apart. AIG was far from faultless, admittedly, but even Bush is getting white-washed by Fox News as being a victim of a reinsurer that was incapable of absorbing a several trillion dollar loss.
It was an eye opening conversation about just HOW deep the delusion is.